Sonia Gandhi returns to Rae Bareli, says will lead from the front for Congress' revival

Asking party workers not to be disheartened by the Lok Sabha debacle, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday said she will lead from the front for the party's revival.

Sonia, who is on her first visit to her parliamentary constituency here after her victory in the just concldued elections, said the Congress will not stop till it regains its glory by adhering to its basic principles. Congress could bag only 44 seats in the elections.

"We will have to win over the confidence of the people in the areas where the party has lost and I will lead from the front in this task... we will not stop till we have not regained the glory of the party", she said addressing Congress workers at the Firoz Gandhi degree college here.

Sonia said she was saddened that Congressmen all over the country worked hard for the victory of the party but it managed only less number of seats. "There would definitely have been some reasons. Some things have come before us and I am looking into them and would also take steps to redress them," she added.

The Congress chief asked her partymen to work with renewed vigour. "We will have to work with renewed vigour... wherever the Congressmen are whether in the vidhan sabhas, nagar nigams, nagar palikas or nagar panchayat they will have to raise the issues concerning the people... the path is difficult but we will have to tread on it through hard work... we have faith that we will achieve our goal", she said.

Sonia said said that since she had been keeping busy in campaigning in the country during the polls she had not been able to come to Rae Bareli but her daughter Priyanka Vadra had been working with the people of her constituency here. "She(Priyanka) had worked with you here and will continue to walk with you in future also," she remarked.

On the newly formed NarendraModi government, Sonia said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made tall promises to the people in the elections but now it is the time to fulfil them.

"As the opposition party we will keep an eye on their working... it is easy to make promises but difficult to fulfil them... people will soon have an idea about this government", she added.

"Congress did good work in the ten years but we could not take it properly among the people... issues like inflation and corruption were magnified by the opposition and our voice got drowned", she said.

Sonia said that about 11 crore voters of the country have shown their faith in the Congress and the party thanked them for it.

"In states including Uttar Pradesh, Congress would have to start again from the booth level and we will achieve our goal through firm resolve," the Congress chief said. In UP, the party could only retain two seats of Rae Bareli and Amethi represented by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi respectively.